NOM has been getting a lot of attention this week for its strategy of race-baiting. As Matt Browner Hamlin reported, the leading GOP candidates all signed the NOM pledge. Matt asked: Do the Republican candidates stand by NOM?
Turns out, Mitt did more. He donated $10,000 to NOM back in 2008 during the Prop. 8 campaign. Tried to hard it, but he's been busted. From Sam Stein:
In 2008, Mitt Romney's political action committee made a $10,000 donation to the National Organization of Marriage at a time when the anti-gay rights organization was seeking repeal of a California law legalizing marriage equality.Scott Wooledge has a post up at Huffington titled, How Much Racial Division and Hostility Did Mitt Romney Buy with His $10,000 Donation to NOM?" Scott used the WayBack machine to find the link to the October 28, 2008 Deseret News article that reported Romney's $10,000 donation to NOM.
While neither the donation nor Romney's opposition to same-sex marriage were a secret, the precise way in which he contributed to NOM remained under tight wraps until Friday. One of the only public comments on the matter came when the former Massachusetts governor's top spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, told the Deseret News that Romney supported California's Proposition 8, which would reverse the state law allowing for same-sex marriage, and that he would be writing a check to NOM.
"The governor feels strongly that marriage is an institution between a man and a woman, and one of the most high-profile fights on this subject is happening in California," Fehrnstrom said at the time.
But when Romney eventually made his donation, he did so quietly, and through an unusual channel. Records filed by Romney's Free and Strong America PAC with the Federal Election Commission did not include details of that $10,000 donation. Nor did NOM's public 990 form. In fact, record of the payment was only uncovered Friday when the pro-gay rights Human Rights Campaign was sent a private IRS filing from NOM via a whistleblower. The Human Rights Campaign shared the filing with The Huffington Post.
Romney was being a dutiful Mormon. We all remember, all too well, that his church took the lead in funding Prop. 8.
And, it's a good question: How much racial division and hostility did Romney buy?
